The JSEB office

Ranchi, Dec. 14: State vigilance bureau officers today swooped down on the residence of former Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) chairman V.N. Pandey at Harihar Singh Road in Ranchi’s upmarket Morabadi locality as the agency stepped up its investigation in the rural electrification scam.

Pandey has been charged by the vigilance bureau of amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of incomes. In addition, he is accused of receiving kickbacks and manipulating rural electrification tenders under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGY) to favour Hyderabad-based firm IVRCL Infrastructures and Projects Ltd.

The raids came at a time when the vigilance bureau is interrogating Vinod Sinha, a key aide of former chief minister Madhu Koda in connection with the rural electrification scam. Sinha, currently lodged at the Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi, is being brought to the vigilance headquarters for questioning about his role in manipulating tenders to favour IVRCL for rural electrification in three districts of Jharkhand.

An earlier vigilance FIR said IVRCL had paid Rs 11.40 crore to the former chief minister through his close associate Sinha to manipulate the tenders. The FIR further alleged that the company had further paid varying amounts to three former chairmen and other officials of JSEB.

Pandey is among 29 people against whom FIRs were lodged by the vigilance bureau on August 30 this year for receiving hefty commissions from the Hyderabad-based firm as consideration of awarding it rural electrification contracts at Garhwa, Latehar and Palamau worth Rs 467.96 crore.

Vigilance IG M.V. Rao confirmed today’s raids. However, he declined to provide further details. The raid at Pandey’s residence was being led by deputy SP Ashok Kumar Rai.

Earlier in February this year, income tax sleuths in a countrywide crackdown at 60 locations across the country had raided Pandey’s Morabadi residence in a bid to gather evidence in the disproportionate assets case.

Those charged in the case include Madhu Koda, former JSEB chairmen B.M. Verma, H.B. Lal and B.N. Pandey, former JSEB officials S.N. Chaudhary, Anand Sagar and Niranjan Rai, Koda’s aide Sinha, IVRCL’s liason man Abhishek Rajput, and the company’s zonal head D.K. Srivastava, other company officials, Quantum Power officials, a sub contractor of IVRCL, RJD leader Girinath Singh and others.